Review: The Tower (2012)

A glitzy party is being held at the luxurious high rise complex, Tower Sky, for the entertainment of its extremely prestigious (not to mention, rich) clientele. Single father and building manager, Dae-ho, is having a tough time juggling his responsibilities to both the Tower Sky and to his daughter, thankfully the woman of his dreams, Yoon-hee, who he also happens to work with, is available to babysit for the day. And thanks to the advent of video chat Dae-ho gets to check in sporadically with his daughter and lady love throughout the day via his fancy phone and rest assured, the effect these interactions have is more pathetic than it is heartwarming. Meanwhile, it's discovered that there are twenty floors in the building that are without water, meaning in the case of a fire, everyone inside the building would be in trouble and guess what? There’s a fire!

Before the proverbial excrement hits the fan however we are introduced to a squad of firemen stationed elsewhere in the city and in my opinion they could've made up the cast of an entire movie on their own considering they have all the typical fireman tropes present including the jaded veteran, the hotshot rookie, and the chubby comedic relief. They're a fun sub-plot but unfortunately the screenwriter, Sang-don Kim, saw fit to not only pile these guys on but a myriad other inessential characters for the purposes of "who the hell knows". A few of these randoms include an old lady trying to make ends meet, a bumbling chef trying futilely to propose to his girlfriend, and a crew of religious zealots that see fit to hole themselves up in a pool praying for help; not the best strategy but you'd be surprised how that plays out. After we've had a few million more storylines shoved down our throat, the fun is finally kicked off thanks to the help of a few under-prepared helicopter pilots.

In case it isn’t already apparent, I’m not a huge fan of the The Tower’s exposition. It’s a bloated clumsily handled affair and I want to tear it apart piece by piece, but to be honest, there’s some aspect of it that’s kind of reassuring. It harkens back to the stupid simplicity of the laughably bad disaster movie fad which included such gems as Armageddon and The Perfect Storm. Meeting the film’s ridiculously large roster of characters is fun, but our interactions with them are shallow and when the bodies start hitting the floor, I wasn’t at all affected by the cloud of doom hanging over them.

Director Ji-hoon Kim might not have a lot to work with in terms of character development but when the Tower Sky is lit aflame and people start running for cover, the intensity level is turned up to eleven for a solid forty minutes, climaxing in a Backdraft style showdown between a crew of firemen and a seemingly sentient inferno. As much fun as I was having hooting and hollering at the television screen rooting for my favorite randoms to make it through unscathed, the good times don’t last. The film’s bloated framework finally gives way in the last act, imploding in spectacularly lackluster fashion and succumbing to seemingly every disaster movie plotline pitfall along the way.

I don’t want to dismiss The Tower as a trivial popcorn flick but it kind of is; and I think it’s safe to say none of the performers involved were in danger of straining an acting muscle over the course of filming. Let there be no confusion on this subject, The Tower is a stupid disaster movie but it’s a stupid disaster movie of the highest order; and aside from a painfully contrived conclusion I enjoyed the ride. Consider this a lukewarm recommendation and check out the sick trailer if you're still on the fence (it's what convinced me to check out this film in the first place).

Review: The Brotherhood of War (2004)

The year is 1950 and despite North and South Korea being on the verge of open war, Jin-seok hasn’t been happier. As a high school student with college aspirations and a family that supports him, he has everything he could want in this world. His older brother Jin-tae has hopes of opening a shoe store, but for the time being he is content to shine shoes to support his family and keep his brother’s college dreams alive. Their relationship is a rare thing, unmarred by any strife whatsoever, one can only happy when the other is happy too. The conflict eventually spills into their small town however and when the younger Jin-seok is drafted, the older brother quickly follows suit in an effort to keep his brother safe in a war that would claim over a million South Korean lives.

Within days of forced enlistment it becomes apparent that Jin-seok is overwhelmed by combat and in an attempt to keep his younger brother out of the thick of fighting, Jin-tae makes a deal with his commanding officer: he would volunteer himself for every mission as long as his brother was kept off the front. This arrangement creates a rift between the brothers that would test their once spotless relationship over the course of a war in which the end is never in sight.

There are moments in The Brotherhood of War that feel like they were lifted from an after school special. The film’s introductory scenes for example, where we meet Jin-seok and Jin-tae, permeate sentiment and optimism thanks to some very happy lighting and a lot of smiles from all major characters and as much as I wanted to hate the filmmakers for handling the exposition in that manner… It does work on some level. The portrait we’re given of a happy family that is subsequently burned asunder by the fires of war is played out and cheesy but the happy go lucky moments of the film’s opening are a necessary evil. They serve as the bedrock which will hold up the mountainous pile of emotional heartache that is the rest of this movie. Trust me, things go very off course for these two brothers.

I watched this film with a friend and references to Saving Private Ryan were being made by both of us left and right, which is fair, as The Brotherhood of War tries its best to bring Hollywood style action to South Korea. The set pieces are impressive in scope and there were moments when my jaw dropped in amazement at the grand scale that the filmmakers and director Je-kyu Kang were able to tell their story on. Unfortunately, it wasn’t all entirely necessary. There are a disconcerting number of scenes that feel like an excuse to show off the film’s budget surplus, not to mention there are more tacked on scenes that are present for no reason other than putting the horrors of war on display. And to what end? Entertainment? Historical value? No, these particularly brutal scenes (one of which is a forced bare knuckle fight between prisoners of war) come off as violent filler. A shame considering the film has two incredibly strong characters whose developmental stories are neglected in lieu of plot stagnating scenes.

The clock management problems here are balanced out in part by strong performances from the cast as a whole, but to be honest, it’s the two leads that steal the show. Dong-gun Jang as the older brother is a stoic presence and is something like the ice to the fire that is Bin Won’s turn as Jin-Seok. I had seen Bin Won in a couple other films, but he puts a vulnerability on display here that wasn’t present in the other pieces, and the effect is at times undeniably tear jerking.

I wish the writers had done something about the love handles on their otherwise trim script, but there’s a lot in The Brotherhood of War to like. The story does rise to over-the-top heights and there are a handful of eye rolling moments of sappy sentiment, but the movie earns these moment by scraping together just enough character development for its two central characters. And by the time the credits are rolling after a heart attack inducing finale, I was happy with what I had seen, and obvious flaws aside, I feel there is a great movie here that is worth tracking down on DVD.

Review: Memories of Murder (2003)

It’s 1986 and the province of Gyunggi is in the midst of a crisis when young women begin turning up dead, ritualistically raped and murdered in the fields that populate its landscape. To make matters worse the top two detectives in the area, Detectives Doo-man Park and Yong-koo Cho, are as brutal as they are stupid, cutting corners in the investigation by beating confessions out of suspects and planting evidence at crime scenes in an effort to get the case closed as quickly as possible. The situation is devolving with every passing day until a glimmer of hope appears in the form of Tae-yoon Seo, a detective from Seoul that volunteered to leave the big city to help the investigation in Gyunggi, convinced that the collection of rural villages has a bona fide serial killer on their hands, he quickly gets down to the business of creating a profile for the killer and mapping his patterns. Tae-yoon’s methods are met with more than a small amount of resistance by the bumbling officers working the case but as the body count rises everyone involved in the investigation realizes that a new brand of thinking may be needed to catch this monster, touted at the time as the first serial killer South Korea has ever had.

As depraved a story as Memories of Murder seems to possess, the first half of the film is wrought with moments of random hilarity. That is, if watching Korean people surprise each other with drop kicks is your idea of funny. The film’s exposition is overall a well handled affair, and as unsettling as it is to see the detectives responsible for solving the case rounding up clearly innocent suspects, it sets the stage for the film’s second half shift towards serious police work. It’s a balancing act that is perfectly embodied by the film’s centerpiece, Detective Park, who undergoes a gradual transformation through the story that is defined by its urgency. It’s a subtle performance that is masterfully played by Kang-ho Song who lends the character a humorous intensity, punctuated by moments of fragility brought on by his character’s own intellectual shortcomings.

Director Joon Ho-bong doesn’t pull in the reigns for any of his actors. Some of the scenes more poignant moments are prone to succumbing to the much beloved Korean film practice of melodrama (the purposely sentimental music is particularly abrasive) and more often than not, it’s a poor fit for the rest of the movie. I won’t fault Ho-bong too much though as the technical aspects of Memories of Murder are just spot-on. The movements of the camera in even the most chaotic moments of the film are noticeably fluid, letting the audience see the scenes play out, unlike the experience offered by the hindered vision of Hollywood’s go-to style of smash cut heavy action cinematography. There is a chase scene in the midsection of the film that is just beautifully put together by all involved. Beginning in a dark forest, twisting and turning through a small rural village, and ending dramatically with a moment of silent suspense in a crowded rock quarry, it’s an amazing set piece that serves not only to excite but also section the film’s opposite halves.

Memories of Murder is not the most in depth police procedural. Much like the borderline crooked cops tasked to solve the case, the screenwriters also cut corners trying to get through the investigation as quickly as possible, dropping a few too many coincidental breaks to move things along for my taste. On the flip side, I appreciated that the writers avoided the tendency that these types of movies have to spoon-feed the audience all relevant information, leaving the responsibility of keeping up with the rapidly moving story up to the viewer. Technical details aside, this movie has more heart than your typical serial killer flick and late in the movie when things are really going south, I found myself pulling for my favorite characters to keep the ship afloat. Memories of Murder is a borderline great film held back by a bit of lazy writing, but despite that, it’s a film I’m very fond of and can’t recommend it enough to fans of the genre or cinema fans in general.